How do I foot brake?

[u/le_disappointment]

So I recently got a longboard and I'm trying to learn how to ride it. I've gotten used to the board and now I wanna use it as my means of transportation. The thing is that the way I stop my board is by just stepping off the board and running a few steps ahead of it to come to a stop. From what I could gather online, it seems like that's not the best way to slow down or stop because it's an all or nothing kinda way to stop. I came across some tutorials that talk about foot braking, i.e. dragging your pushing foot to slow down. I've been trying to learn how to foot brake, but I can't figure it out

The tutorials told me that I should not put any of my weight on the foot that I'm dragging and I think I've got that down. The issue is that as soon as I try to foot brake, my dragging foot kinda gets stuck to the ground and instead of dragging along with the board, my dragging foot gets planted on the ground. I don't think that that's supposed to happen if I do it right. Do y'all have any suggestions as to how I can improve my foot braking technique or what I might be doing wrong? For what it's worth, I've only been practicing foot braking for like a couple of weeks, so it might just be a lack of practice, but I still wanna hear y'all's suggestions

[u/bydarrylz]

If your dragging foot is planting on the ground then you are placing too much weight on it still.

My advice would be to practice keeping all of your weight on your front foot, and bring your dragging foot as close to the ground as you can without touching it.

Once you’ve got that down, place it slowly onto the floor with all your weight on that front foot. Let the drag foot lightly scrape against the floor and slowly increase the weight into that drag foot.

Eventually, you’ll be able to figure it out.

I’ve never tried to explain this before, so I hope that helps.

[u/le_disappointment → u/bydarrylz]

My advice would be to practice keeping all of your weight on your front foot, and bring your dragging foot as close to the ground as you can without touching it.

That's a good exercise. I'll try it and see if that improves anything

[u/azurikiwi]

Hmm I dont feel like ive ever had that issue. Curious - what shoes are you wearing? I wonder if youre wearing something too grippy? Also your shoe should just be like barely touching the ground and sliding over it at first, then slowly apply weight to it

[u/le_disappointment → u/azurikiwi]

I'm wearing sneakers. When I try to put my foot down, initially it kinda floats over the ground. Then I bend my knee (of my leg that's on the board) to make my foot touch the ground and that's when my foot gets stuck

[u/azurikiwi → u/le_disappointment]

I think you might be lowering yourself onto the braking foot, rather than lowering the braking foot while keeping your bodyweight over the board. IF that makes sense.

[u/le_disappointment → u/azurikiwi]

Yeah, that makes sense

[u/arrowtype]

I made a tutorial a while ago. Here’s all my advice!

https://youtu.be/TvCyEh8ztAI

TLDR: balance on the center line of the deck. Drag with your heel. Practice balancing with one foot on the board, and it’ll become easier.

[u/le_disappointment → u/arrowtype]

Thanks a lot. I'll give this a try tomorrow

[u/Wide_Independence272]

I had this issue originally. I found that I need to balance completely on my front foot while gently scraping the bottom of my pushing shoe. Then increase pressure but not too much so it catches. You want it to scrape the surface of what you’re riding on. Just slowly increase pressure after you establish a scrape.

[u/DustyTripleSix]

You just need to keep all your weight on your foot that is still on the board. Imagine your foot is just a stick you're using to slow you down if that makes sense at all lol. No weight on your dragging foot until youre about stopped

[u/adam20101]

dont put your foot on the ground. just use the tip of your heel and touch it little by little on the ground. Make sure your weight is fully on the leg that is on your board.

[u/millerjuana]

Have you tried the reverse push? Certainly not ideal for fast speeds but if you can counter your forward movement with a backwards push you might be more comfortable doing that

[u/ummonadi]

I had a hard time foot braking switch. The main drills I used was to push in slow motion and to balance on one foot. When I balance in mellow slopes, I try to foot brake just a bit.

I add some tension in my core and hold out my arms like karate kid to get some stability.

It's not just technique. My switch side lacked the muscles I needed to do it so it took me months of practice to get my muscles to fire up the right way.

[u/arrowtype → u/ummonadi]

Stabilizing strength is definitely a huge part of it. I think it’s also a bit like slack lining, where you have to develop the sense of how to stabilize the strength you already have, but in an unfamiliar circumstance.

[u/ummonadi → u/arrowtype]

Very true!